Good expansion to the original Baldur's Gate that adds some positive features and elements from games that came later but hurts itself with mostly poor main plot and an ending that wants to but can't be continued in BG2.
Covers what happened between the aftermath of Baldur's Gate and your group's capture in the opening of Baldur's Gate 2. Your party from the first game tracks down the remaining allies of your half-brother Sarevok in the prologue before many of your friends and allies go their separate ways while you remain in the city with Imoen as the Hero of Baldur's Gate. One night assassins attack you and Imoen and are found to have been sent by the forces of an army of crusaders lead by an Aasimar who believes she is supported by many of the gods in her attempt to enter hell to free the lost souls of those who died in the recent Dragonspear War. Her army has been destroying villages and forces in her way leading to a massive influx of refugees fleeing to Baldur's Gate.
Good handling of characterization with Khalid, Jaheira, Imoen, and Safona and some funny new lines from Minsc. The main character's dialogue choices feel in line with the original game with your character offing being able to act as a mixture of a good helpful person, mercenary looking out for themselves, over the top villain, or a player acting out his lines in a tabletop RPG that they might be long past the point of being tired of playing in. Helps to tie things into BG2 and ToB, Imoen leaves the group to study magic having her multi class mage build make sense narratively in the next game, fleshes out Bhaal and Cyric a bit more. Has your character get some of the recognition they should be getting from allies and enemies as the hero of Baldur's Gate. Has some positive aspects from games newer than the original such as characters speaking to each other more often as you travel or commenting on areas you enter, a storage chest for equipment that follows your army camp around in between chapters, you can handle some companion quests just by talking to them in camp without needing them in your party just to go acquire items, some quests have multiple ways to solve them or easier ways depending on what companions are in your party, charisma or intelligence stats of the person talking, or talking to someone as a certain class or race might offer unique options. The returning characters have new voice lines for their conversations and new combat barks and react to things with lines that they previously wouldn't like trying to overfill their inventory or critical hits and misses, the exception to this being Jaheira whose voice actress stopped acting around 2002 and has no new voiced lines. At no point were enemy mages casting lightning bolt in tiny dungeon passages and rooms in a way that could kill themselves, their allies, and half your party like they were obsessed with doing in BG1. Some items you can acquire can be brought into the world of BG2 with some of them just being something you might want to use in general and some being helpful or more helpful for a certain class you might be playing like Shaman or Archer. Good music that feels similar to the style of the other IE games.
It wants to do the post Neverwinter Nights Bioware thing with big army battles and endings, and actually does a better job than any of the Dragon Age or Mass Effect games did but with an engine that doesn't really support large combats well with how some spells work and with the engine's pathfinding issues. Antagonist with some sympathetic qualities but a stupid out of place plan for the world that never really shows a good reason why so many would follow her and the generically treacherous advisor hurt the main plot but the terrible rushed feeling ending that can't even be addressed in BG2 since it was made first (outside of a fan mod) really hurts the entire endgame. It would have been nice if the final chapter of the game saw you fighting in hell and dealing with different devils or remaining elements of the crusader army or how your party members take being brought into hell instead of just being a five minute walk before getting to an end boss and meaningless new side character. Depending on classes characters will level up only 1-2 times over the course of this game, though because level ups in the older D&D games don't really come with much or anything in the way of options or new abilities this doesn't really hurt the experience.
Kept the series tradition alive of having you spend almost no time in Baldur's Gate except for the short opening that locks off most of the city.
Screenshots: https://x.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1797334794331996591
Covers what happened between the aftermath of Baldur's Gate and your group's capture in the opening of Baldur's Gate 2. Your party from the first game tracks down the remaining allies of your half-brother Sarevok in the prologue before many of your friends and allies go their separate ways while you remain in the city with Imoen as the Hero of Baldur's Gate. One night assassins attack you and Imoen and are found to have been sent by the forces of an army of crusaders lead by an Aasimar who believes she is supported by many of the gods in her attempt to enter hell to free the lost souls of those who died in the recent Dragonspear War. Her army has been destroying villages and forces in her way leading to a massive influx of refugees fleeing to Baldur's Gate.
Good handling of characterization with Khalid, Jaheira, Imoen, and Safona and some funny new lines from Minsc. The main character's dialogue choices feel in line with the original game with your character offing being able to act as a mixture of a good helpful person, mercenary looking out for themselves, over the top villain, or a player acting out his lines in a tabletop RPG that they might be long past the point of being tired of playing in. Helps to tie things into BG2 and ToB, Imoen leaves the group to study magic having her multi class mage build make sense narratively in the next game, fleshes out Bhaal and Cyric a bit more. Has your character get some of the recognition they should be getting from allies and enemies as the hero of Baldur's Gate. Has some positive aspects from games newer than the original such as characters speaking to each other more often as you travel or commenting on areas you enter, a storage chest for equipment that follows your army camp around in between chapters, you can handle some companion quests just by talking to them in camp without needing them in your party just to go acquire items, some quests have multiple ways to solve them or easier ways depending on what companions are in your party, charisma or intelligence stats of the person talking, or talking to someone as a certain class or race might offer unique options. The returning characters have new voice lines for their conversations and new combat barks and react to things with lines that they previously wouldn't like trying to overfill their inventory or critical hits and misses, the exception to this being Jaheira whose voice actress stopped acting around 2002 and has no new voiced lines. At no point were enemy mages casting lightning bolt in tiny dungeon passages and rooms in a way that could kill themselves, their allies, and half your party like they were obsessed with doing in BG1. Some items you can acquire can be brought into the world of BG2 with some of them just being something you might want to use in general and some being helpful or more helpful for a certain class you might be playing like Shaman or Archer. Good music that feels similar to the style of the other IE games.
It wants to do the post Neverwinter Nights Bioware thing with big army battles and endings, and actually does a better job than any of the Dragon Age or Mass Effect games did but with an engine that doesn't really support large combats well with how some spells work and with the engine's pathfinding issues. Antagonist with some sympathetic qualities but a stupid out of place plan for the world that never really shows a good reason why so many would follow her and the generically treacherous advisor hurt the main plot but the terrible rushed feeling ending that can't even be addressed in BG2 since it was made first (outside of a fan mod) really hurts the entire endgame. It would have been nice if the final chapter of the game saw you fighting in hell and dealing with different devils or remaining elements of the crusader army or how your party members take being brought into hell instead of just being a five minute walk before getting to an end boss and meaningless new side character. Depending on classes characters will level up only 1-2 times over the course of this game, though because level ups in the older D&D games don't really come with much or anything in the way of options or new abilities this doesn't really hurt the experience.
Kept the series tradition alive of having you spend almost no time in Baldur's Gate except for the short opening that locks off most of the city.
Screenshots: https://x.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1797334794331996591